


No One's Here to Sleep

by Whitescruffydog



Series: Avowed Disharmony [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AtLA AU, Avatar!Steve, Earthbender!Bucky, Fire Lord!Red Skull, Gen, no points for guessing how this ends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 09:52:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8886355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whitescruffydog/pseuds/Whitescruffydog
Summary: Steve has always wanted to make a difference and if he has to sacrifice himself to destroy the Fire Lord, so be it.





	

“Isn’t it amazing how two different types of people can live together in harmony?”  James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes asked, rhetorically, to his friend Steve Rogers. 

Steve gave a grin and shook his head, his shoulders lightly bouncing up. 

“Isn’t that what you want to achieve entirely one day, Avatar?” Bucky’s grin turned malicious as he teased his friend.

Steve knocked him in the side with his elbow.  “Yeah, of course it is.  But with the Fire Nation…”

“No buts, Steve.  You’re a great man.  You’ve always wanted to help everyone, before you even knew you were the Avatar.  You’ll get there, I know you will.”  Bucky slapped a supporting palm on Steve’s shoulder. 

“Thanks, Buck.”  Steve nudged him in the side again, much softer this time.

“Any idea if we’re stopping here or not?”  Bucky released Steve, returning to his “comfortable” position of lounging against a stone column. 

“I’m not sure,” Steve replied honestly.

They were currently residing on Heli-Island, a large landmass that levitated through across the world through something something aerodynamics something airbending something something Howard Stark. 

Steve was probably going to have to learn the how one day and he wasn’t looking forward to it. 

Either way, Heli-Island was home to a unique dual establishment of both air and earthbenders, which is how Steve and Bucky had met, long before Steve had learned he was the Avatar.  Now the Heli-Island was approaching the Northern Water Tribes and while Steve hadn’t been introduced to any waterbenders yet he wasn’t sure if Howard was going to risk the stop with the ever-looming threat of the firebenders. 

“You can definitely feel the chil—”

A loud crash reverberated through the ground they sat on, scattering debris from above onto their clothes as the sky in the distance was painted bright red.  Steve and Bucky leapt to their feet, worries about the atmospheric temperature forgotten.  They soared over the island, aided by the very environment that surrounded them, thinking of and wishing for nothing but to save the friends and family they loved. 

They landed amidst a storm of combat regularly punctuated by scathingly sharp and/or acutely ablaze air.  

“Steve, wait!”  Behind them, Howard called out, the scientist nonbender looking highly out of place in the swarming maelstrom. 

Steve was pulled back, diving behind a shattered wall, while Bucky joined the fight in front of them.  “Howard—I don’t have time for this.”

“No!” Howard exclaimed breathlessly as Steve tried to pull away, before regaining his composure, “No, Steve, you can’t go out there.  It’s too risky—you can’t.” 

Steve pulled away with a vicious glare, disappointed but not surprised that his superiors would try such a thing.  He turned and leapt over the rubble, not looking back. 

“Bucky!  _Bucky!_ ” Steve called, squinting through the smoke, even as the sting burrowed into his eyes. 

“Steve!” Bucky called in return, and Steve desperately searched even as he felt bits of stone pummel on him from above.

A flash of red appeared in his vision, before suddenly vanishing behind a wall of rock, and something collided with Steve, sending him rolling to the ground.

“The Fire Lord!” Bucky exclaimed, halting Steve’s struggle against the weight on him.  “He’s here!  He’s--!”

“ _Where?_ ” Steve demanded.  If the Fire Lord was personally threatening his home, then it was his duty as both a soldier and the Avatar to take care of it.

Bucky and Steve stared at each other briefly, before nodding and scrambling off in unison, Bucky taking the lead and darting through the disaster zone that encroached ever further and further. 

Soon, they dove behind another wall, and carefully peered over.  Not far away, Fire Lord Johann Schmidt—also known as the Red Skull due to the horrendous burn scars covering his face—was terrorizing—slaughtering—their people.  With a deep breath, Steve readied himself, and landed in front of him, Bucky landing behind not long after. 

“Red Skull,” Steve stated, staring down his enemy with a confident stance and steely gaze.

“I demand your best, and this is what I get?” Johann scoffed, lowering his guard in arrogance.  “It seems your kingdom has truly fallen despite its lofty position.”

“We’re not,” Bucky launched forward, aiming a kick at Johann’s stomach, “a kingdom!”

Johann caught the strike on his forearm, spinning enough to redirect most of the force before sending a blast at Bucky’s back.  Bucky rolled, bringing up the ground to protect himself, and while Johann was distracted, Steve sent his own burst of air but it was met in stalemate and dispersed by a significant plume of fire.

They switched then, Steve mostly focused on driving the Fire Lord’s assault back and Bucky providing backup and striking where appropriate.  Steve’s own earthbending was disguised as Bucky’s and it was questionable if Johann knew who he was fighting against.

They danced, an elegant yet violent display of air, earth, and fire.  Where Steve attacked, Johann dodged and Bucky came up behind.

“Up!” Bucky exclaimed, and Steve was thrown into the air by the earth beneath him in time to avoid a blast of fire coming up while he was distracted.  The air swirled around Steve, righting and guiding him, dropping him down for a punch on Johann’s face.

Johann to his credit did not recoil as much as expected, and Steve was faced with an explosion of fire at pointblank range.  He waved his arms, a shield of air forming and cushioning the strike, but he was still launched back hard and he felt the bite of burns from the fringe of the attack.

“You insignificant _insects_!” Johann roared, and the very air shimmered with the supernova of a Fire Lord fueled by ferocious rage.  The fire coiled magnificently, a subservient cobra ready to rear its head, then all at once it roared forward, crashing through Bucky’s haphazard buffer of earth.

Steve saw it—Steve saw him try to dodge, but the attack was swift and deadly; at least some of Bucky was caught in the strike, and just being close to the torrent of liquid flame was enough to pick him up and send him flying—straight through the lazily blowing wind that marked the edge of Heli-Island. 

There was a pause:  Steve laying on the ground but propped on his elbow, and the Fire Lord, still blazing in a manner worthy of his title.  Then it broke:  A renewed assault of air and earth against the fully powered fire, sorrow and pain bleeding into rage against rage and arrogance bleeding into victory. 

The Fire Lord was powerful and smart and Steve was the Avatar, but not well trained, and it resulted in a perfect synchronous dance of the elements, each gaining ground just to lose it, and both showing little signs of fatigue. 

Behind them, their respective armies fought valiantly, both invigorated by the extreme battle of Fire Lord versus Avatar.

“Do you hear that, _Avatar_?”  The Fire Lord spat, eyes burning with the hatred fueling his power.  “ _That_ is the sound of your people dying.  You will soon join them.” 

But the Avatar would always exist, reborn again indefinitely, while the Fire Nation was a kingdom ruled by hatred and fear, and Steve knew what he had to do. 

“Yeah.  I will.”  Steve barely acknowledged the confusion in the Fire Lord’s eyes, as the ground beneath them lurched and Steve crashed into Johann, a power struggle rising as the ground fell and the two of them barreled towards the freezing ocean below. 

Johann struggled, trying to rocket himself back onto the rapidly shrinking island, but Steve subverted the attempts, carefully and thoroughly ensuring their fates. 

They collided with the surface, a penetrating numbness immediately making itself known.  And as Steve sunk, he slipped away, content in the thought he had at least made a difference.

Everything turned to white.

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from the Naughty Boy song ft. Bastille.  
> Another snapsnot of the larger universe seen in "Charles the Fire-Tamer," which has now been named "Avowed Disharmony."


End file.
